House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has vowed to investigate Speaker Nancy Pelosi over her husband’s controversial stock trading.
The speaker has received a severe backlash for Paul Pelosi’s recent trades while members of her own party are pushing for a ban on members of Congress and their spouses from trading stocks.
McCarthy said that when Republicans take back control of the House, which appears highly likely after the midterms, then the GOP will investigate Pelosi’s trades.
“I would look all the way through it,” said McCarthy, who is expected to take over from Pelosi as speaker of the House.
“What I’ve told everybody is we will come back, and we will not only investigate this, we will come back with a proposal to change the current behavior.”
“Her husband can trade all the way through, but now it becomes a crisis?” he said of the Democrats making noise about a bill to ban stock trades by members of Congress and their spouses now, at the end of the term, after the damage has been done.
“I think what her husband did was wrong.
“I think we need to bring trust back to this institution,” he said.
“I think we have to do a thorough investigation and look at what is the proper role for members of Congress and what influence they have, and I don’t think the proper way to do this is Nancy Pelosi writing the bill because we have proven that she can’t do that.”
WATCH:
Democrats plan to introduce legislation next month that would prevent stock trades by members of Congress and their spouses.
However, Pelosi has long opposed such measures, for obvious reasons.
“Has your husband ever made a stock purchase or sale based on information he’s received from you?” a reporter asked Pelosi last week.
“No. Absolutely not,” Pelosi scolded before walking off.
Watch this.
Reporter: "Has your husband ever made a stock purchase or sale based on info received from you?"
Pelosi: "No, absolutely not."
The Pelosi’s recently bought shares in Nvidia, $NVDA, worth millions.
Nancy Pelosi backs the CHIPS Plus bill, a $52B semiconductor bill. pic.twitter.com/uMNIRVxg44
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) July 21, 2022
Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) recently called for a “ban stock trading by members of Congress & their spouses.”
“Call it the Pelosi Act,” he said.
According to Punchbowl News:
House Democrats plan to announce a proposal next month to ban lawmakers, their spouses and senior staff from trading stocks, according to multiple sources close to the issue.
The framework, which the House Democratic leadership will release in early August, would force members of Congress, their spouses and senior staff to choose between putting their assets in a qualified blind trust or completely divesting their investment portfolios.
The proposed legislation would allow members, spouses and senior staff to hold mutual funds.
The leadership’s goal is to introduce legislation in the beginning of September and push it through the chamber that month.
“We’re almost ready to move forward on this,” House Administration Committee Chair Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) told us Wednesday.
Punchbowl News: House Democrats plan to announce a proposal next month to ban lawmakers, their spouses and senior staff from trading stocks, according to multiple sources close to the issue.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 28, 2022